Zingerman's Coffee, a coffee wholesaler and part of the Zingerman's Community of Businesses, is seeking permission to sell coffee and espresso drinks from a new location in Pittsfield Township.

The company, which roasts and sells coffee beans to cafes and retailers, plans to move into 6,500 square feet in the Airport Plaza Business Park on Plaza Drive. The location is near Zingerman's Bakehouse and Zingerman's Creamery.

Zingerman’s Coffee currently shares space with Zingerman's mail-order business on Phoenix Drive.

Allen Leibowitz, Zingerman's Coffee's co-managing partner, said the move should be completed by October, with the retail operation going in shortly after that.

The move will give the company more room to store coffee beans, he said, which will in turn allow it to obtain better quality product. That's because there's often a small window of time in which to buy certain types of beans.

"It helps in buying better product," Leibowitz said. "In the past, we could only buy certain amounts because we couldn't warehouse it."

He said the coffee company has occupied about 2,500 square feet in the mail order operation's 20,000-square-foot warehouse on Phoenix Drive.

The Zingerman's Coffee expansion will include hiring of up to four part-timers for the retail side, said co-managing partner Steve Mangigian. That will bring total employment to nine.

The coffee business is one of seven under the Ann Arbor-based Zingerman's family, Mangigian said, and the fifth largest in terms of revenue. It recorded $800,000 in revenue in the last fiscal year, which ended July 31, and projects over $1 million after adding the retail component.

That follows 15-25 percent growth every year since it was founded five years ago, he added.

Freelance reporter Dan Meisler can be reached at danmeisler@gmail.com. Business Director Paula Gardner contributed to this story.